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P UNITED STATES OF AME 




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OF THE 

ADMINISTRATION CONVENTION, 

HELD IN THE CAPITOL AT RALEIGH, DEC. 20, 1827. 



TO THE FREEMEN OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

Fellow-citizens : The approaching election of President of the United 
States has created a high excitement in the public mind, and roused into ac- 
tion many angry passions. Those who now address you are far from desiring 
to increase this excitement, or to inflame these passions. They know that a 
large majority of their countrymen who take a, part on either side of this con- 
troversy, are actuated by honest motives. They claim to themselves the right 
of expressing their own opinion, and of acting in conformity to the dictates of 
their own judgment; but they acknowledge, to its full extent, the right of 
others to form a different opinion, and to follow it up by a correspondent 
course pf action. They see no reason why the citizens of the same community, 
entertaining the same reverence for their common institutions, and equally 
desirous of promoting the prosperity of their common country, may not differ 
about the means of effecting this end, without asperity or animosity. They be- 
lieve that calm discussion, and dispassionate inquiry are most favorable to a 
correct decision. While, therefore, as freemen, addressing freemen, they 
would express themselves frankly and fearlessly ; yet, as men who know their 
own infirmities and weaknesses, they would fain speak without arrogance or 
bitterness. 

We have assembled, fellow-citizens, from different parts of the State, to 
confer with each other on the forming of an Electoral Ticket, which we may 
ourselves support, and which we can recommend to others who may determine 
to act with us in the Presidential Election. A conference on this subject was 
indispensable. The law of our State, as it now exists, will not permit us to 
vote in our respective districts for Electors whom we personally know, and in 
whom we can confide, because we do know them. We can exercise the elec- 
tive franchise only as the law permits; and we cannot exercise it at all, without 
learning who will probably be acceptable to those citizens in the different dis- 
tricts of the State, who, with us, are favorable to there-election of the present 
Chief Magistrate. We believe that we have procured this information, and we 
therefore take the liberty of making known the names of the persons for whom 
we intend to vote. We attempt no control over public sentiment, make no 
parade of our numbers, and claim no official influence. The ticket which we 
propose must stand or fall by its own merit. 

The approaching contest exhibits a state of things, until lately unheard 
of in the political history of our country. From the period which closed the 
political life of the illustrious Washington, down to the days in which we live, 
whenever there were rival candidates for the Presidency, the rivalry sprang 
from a difference in the parties who divided the country. To the honor of the 
People, these parties were founded on measures and principles, not on men, 
and a struggle for office. The effect of these contests was to bring before 
the People, for their choice, those best qualified to - administer the affairs of 
the nation, according to their views of its policy ; and, in every instance, the 
candidate preferred was decidedly the ablest man of his party . The pend- 
ing controversy exhibits no such dignity. It is not a conflict between op- 
posing principles ; but a conflict between opposing men, and combinations ot 
men. It is founded on no recognised difference about measures ; but on a 






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competition for power and place. On either side, we see arrayed politicians, 
who have scarcely before been known to act in concert. The champions of 
State rights, and the liberal expounders of the Federal Constitution — the zea- 
lots for national encouragement to Domestic Manufacturers, and the bigots 
who deem even moderate protection usurpation and tyranny — the friends and 
the enemies to Internal improvement — by some extraordinary principles of 
cohesion, are found either combined to overturn, or united to uphold, the 
present Administration. In the political principles of Mr. Adams and of his 
opponent in their views of national policy— so far as they have been declared, 
or are discoverable — a difference of any kind is not known to exist. This 
state of things appears to us, not only novel, but, in some respects, alarming. 
It is of a character which we deem menacing to the tranquillity, the honor, 
and the best interests, of our country. 

We have no personal concern in this struggle. Belonging to the great body 
of the People, neither fearing to lose, nor seeking to gain office, we behold 
and judge of it only as it may affect the common welfare of us all ; and, believ- 
ing that welfare essentially endangered, we cannot be indifferent to the result. 

Three years ago, four candidates were voted for by the People. No one ob- 
tained a Constitutional majority, and it devolved on the House of Representa- 
tives to make a selection from the three who had received the greatest num- 
ber of suffrages. The choice fell on one of unquestioned talents, of extensive 
and accurate political knowledge, of long experience — pronounced by Wash- 
ington among the first of our public characters — tried, trusted, and approved, 
by Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. He selected, for the first station in his 
Cabinet, one of his opponents, distinguished for genius, eminent as a slates- 
man, and ardently admired by his friends. Instantly, the zealous supporters of 
the disappointed candidates began the work of opposition. The charge of cor- 
ruption was sounded through the land. Honorable and good men, exasperated 
by disappointment, or enraged by the contagious violence of their friends, 
avowed a determination to oppose the Administration, though it should be as 
pure as the angels who surrounded the throne of the Most High ! Then com- 
menced the array of party against party in our national councils 5 and, from that 
day, no public measure has been censured or applauded, opposed or sup- 
ported, without a view to its influence on the next Presidential contest. The 
work of violence, begun by the political chiefs, was prosecuted with bitterness 
by the subalterns of the parties through the nation. The harmony of social in- 
tercourse has been impaired ; the purity of character of our best citizens has 
been assailed ; ancient animosities have been revived — new schisms have been 
created ; sectional prejudices have been roused ; and many of our public prints 
have teemed with abuse and slander. 

Fellow-citizens, what.course does a regard for the tranquillity of our country 
call upon us to pursue ? The term for which Mr. Adams was elected, has 
nearly expired, and, according to the well known and approved usages of our 
country, he comes before us as a candidate for re-election. All his adversaries 
have united in the support of one opposing candidate, and between these we 
must choose. If we vote at all, we must either express our assent that Mr. 
Adams shall have the accustomed mark of his country's approbation — a con- 
tinuance in office for a second term — or we must join to eject him, by giving 
our suffrages for the candidate of the Opposition. To us, it appears that no 
usage can be more auspicious in its influence upon the tranquillity of our coun- 
try, than the re-election, for a second term, of a President with whose Ad- 
ministration there is no well-founded and serious cause of complaint. It is 
surely desirable that there should be a breathing time between the violent 
conflicts which always occur on the approach of contested Presidential elec- 
tions ; that there should be a serene interval, in which public men may quietly 
plan, and calmly execute, what the public good requires, unagitated by the 
passions which accompany these conflicts ; and that the F»ople should not be 
kept, by the arts and exertions of political partizans, in a continued state of 
feverish excitement, not less unfriendly to their peace, than unfavorable to the 
exercise of their judgment. If, when an individual is appointed to discharge 
the duties of President, it be known that the question of his re-election is to 
be determined without regard to the manner in which those duties shall have 
^een performed, we may hereafter expect an unintermitted strife The instan* 



one election is decided, the struggle for the next will begin. The disappointed 
candidates and their friends, without waiting to witness the political course of 
the successful competitor, will instantly take the field, angry, but not dispirited, 
by defeat, and wreak their united vengeance on him who has been the cause 
of their common discomfiture. The hope Of public approbation, one of the 
strongest incentives to public virtue, will be taken away. No course, however 
wise or honest, will secure the President from obloquy, silence opposition to 
his measures, or allay the animosity of his enemies. He can have no confidence 
tTTat he will be allowed to finish any beneficial scheme of national policy which 
he may have begun, and that he must not surrender his unfinished work, " to- 
gether with his reputation, to a successor unequal to the task," or unfriendly 
to his views. " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," is the language 
of the sensualist. Let me enrich my family and friends, let me strengthen the 
power of my adherents during the short term of my office, would then be the 
natural suggestion of avarice and ambition. 

Let us not be misrepresented. We are not advocates for an indefinite re^ 
eligibility of the President. Custom, founded on the precedent set by the man 
whose memory all now venerate, has established firmly, and we think happily, 
that no President shall hold the office longer than eight years. But the same 
custom has sanctioned that the President who has conducted the affairs of the 
nation virtuously and wisely, shall receive one re-election. 

Why, then, we would ask, of our calm and reasoning fellow-citizens, shall 
we join in this opposition to Mr. Adams ? If we take for granted the decla- 
mations of his opponents — if we believe all that the Opposition presses have 
charged upon him — nay, if we confide in the rhetorical, and even honest de- 
nunciations of our fellow-citizens, over zealous in the cause of General Jack- 
son, there is indeed abundant cause to visit him with the full measure of our 
reprobation. But political opposition is seldom either candid or just ; excessive 
zeal blinds the understanding, and perverts the judgment ; and the press, 
which should be the vehicle of truth, is too often but the medium of calumny 
and falsehood. We have heard, we have seen, the President charged with 
having usurped a power denied him by the Constitution, in claiming the right 
to send Ministers to foreign Powers, against the will, and without the consent 
of the Senate. What is the fact? The President announced to Congress, that 
an application had been made to him, in the recess of the Senate, to send Minis- 
ters to the Congress of Panama, and thai, although he believed his powers 
adequate to this object, he deemed it expedient to wait for the meeting of his 
Constitutional council before he decided on so important a measure. If he 
Were in error in supposing that his Constitutional power to fill vacancies in the 
office of foreign Ministers, in the recess of the Senate, did extend to a case 
where a previous appointment had not been made, candor would have pro- 
nounced that error venial which had been sanctioned by every predecessor in 
the office. We would refer these censors to the resolutions presented by Mr. 
Gore, in the Senate of the United States, on the 7th of March, 1814, in which 
that body was called upon to resolve, that the President of the United States, 
having power to fill vacancies which may happen in the recess of the Senate, 
no such vacancy could occur in an office not before full,and that, therefore, the 
granting of commissions, in the recess, to Messrs. Adams, Bayard, and Galla- 
tin, to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain, was an act unwarranted 
by the Constitution, and an infringement of the rights of the Senate, and of the 
States whom they represented. Few questions were ever more deliberately 
considered, or more thoroughly discussed. At length, that enlightened and 
venerable body, the special guardians of the rights supposed to have been 
thus violated, on the 12th of April following, rejected these resolutions by a 
rote of indefinite postponement.* In this debate, precedents were cited of 
the exercise of this right by all the predecessors of Mr. Madison. In Wash- 
ington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, the actual exercise of the power was 
deemed Constitutional, and pronounced to be orthodox ; but in him who now 
fills the Presidential Chair, an intimation that it exists, though accompanied 
with a forbearance to use it, is stigmatised as a political heresy, and denounced 

* See Journal of the Senate of the 2d Senfsion of the 13th Congress, pages 210, 216, 264, 283, 
296, 301, 309, 3 18, 340, and 346. 



as tyranny and usurpation ! Surely the race is not extinct of those who strain 
at gnats and swallow camels. 

Because the President has expressed the sentiment which impiety itself 
could scarcely arraign, that his oath of office imposes an obligation paramount 
to all human considerations, he is misrepresented as claiming power from di- 
vine authority ; and because he has advanced the manly and honest doctrine, 
that, where the course of duty is plain, and the obligation to act imperative, 
the public agent should never be palsied by the fear of popular displeasure — a 
doctrine once so ably and so eloquently enforced on the floor of the House of 
Representatives, by Mr. Calhoun — he is denounced as regardless of the Con- 
stitution, aristocratic in his notions, and a contemner of the will of the People. 
An intelligent People should discriminate between flatterers and friends. Flat- 
terers, indeed, are never friends. The demagogue, who, in a Republic, lives 
but to please the People, under a monarchy, would be foremost in the train of 
courtiers that besiege the throne with fulsome adulation. Political sunflowers 
always direct their faces to the orb of light and heat, in whatever quarter of 
the heavens it may shine. It is, indeed, desirable to have the favor of those 
who can confer office; but it is nobler, far, to promote the public good by an 
honest discharge of duty, even at the risk of public displeasure. 

The President is arraigned for having lost the British West India trade, by 
undertaking to arrange the subject by amicable negotiation, instead of con- 
curring in proposed enactments of Congress, which would have secured to us 
our fair share of this commerce. The charge is not true. The proposed Con- 
gressional enactments, it is now known, would not have obtained the boon 
which they were designed to invite. Nor ought it to have been thus invited. 
The trade was a fair and proper subject of convention between the two coun- 
tries, to be settled on the basis of mutual rights and reciprocal interests. The 
honor of our country forbade any other course. If England would not deign 
to treat on this subject, it was not for us to coax her haughty Ministers into 
concessions by legislative condescension. The plan was not more inconsistent 
with-self respect, than repugnant to the nature of the subject to be arranged. 
The legislation and counter-legislation of two distinct sovereignties never can 
combine the views of both Governments on a matter of compact, so as " to pro- 
duce a harmonious reconciliation of those jarring purposes and discordant ele- 
ments which it is the business of negotiation to adjust." 

Your jealousies have been roused by being reminded that Mr. Adams is a 
Northern man, and from a non-slaveholding State. Remember the farewell 
warning of the Father of his Country, in his invaluable legacy to his children : 
' * Beware of geographical parties, of sectional factions. Array not the North 
against the South — the West against the East." This admonition, which 
should be precious to all, it would be madness in us to disregard. Are we so 
moon-struck as to imagine, that, if we combine, they will not unite ; if we re- 
ject, because the individual is not of us, they will-not refuse every one who is 
not of them ? And when this array of States in hostile attitude shall be once 
made, know we not with whom is the strength ? Shall we not seal the exclu- 
sion thereafter and forever, of a Southern man from the Presidency ? But what 
has the Federal Government to do with the delicate subject here referred to ? 
And what are we to apprehend from a President, who, though from the North, 
has the magnanimity to place a majority of Southern men in his Cabinet ? 

Fellow-citizens, there is one charge more against the President. It is a 
charge which ought to have been well weighed before it was advanced ; which 
should be fully proved before it is believed ; which, 4f true, leaves a stain upon 
our national character, hardly to be effaced ; and which, if false, should draw 
down heavy indignation upon those who had the baseness to fabricate it, or 
the rashness to prefer it, without a certainty of its truth. You all know that 
we allude to the charge of a corrupt bargain between Mr. Adams and Mr. 
Clay, by which the latter was seduced to support the former, and to procure 
for him a sufficient number of subservient friends in Congress, by whose votes 
to decide the election in his favor. In the sincerity of our souls we declare, 
that we feel humbled in noticing this accusation. What must foreigners think 
of the state of morals in our country, when charges like these are bandied 
against the most distinguished of our statesmen ? What a malignant triumph 
is afforded to the enemies of freedom, by such imputations, boldly made, fear- 



5 

iessly circulated, against men of the highest reputation for personal integrity, 
and long illustrious, in these Confederated States, for their public services, 
their talents, and their stations ! And what must we ourselves think of the 
appetite for slander, which can swallow these accusations, without proof ; of 
the bigotry of party, which believes them against proof ; of the indifference 
with which those who disbelieve, witness and endure their circulation ; and 
of the rare display of that generous sensibility which was to have been ex- 
pected from the honorable and highminded opponents of traduced and slan- 
dered gentlemen ? If there were no other motive to deter us from hastily join- 
ing the Opposition, the fear to encourage calumny by success ; a solicitude to 
put down rasli and ruthless attacks on personal reputation; a determination not 
to justify the degradation of our character abroad, (for our character there is 
identified with that of our President, our Secretary of State, and members of 
Congress,) would all come in aid of the best feelings of the human heart, to 
bid us keep aloof. We shall not go through the evidence which disproves 
this accusation : for, strange to say, contrary to every rule of ordinary justice, 
it has been required to be disproved. We refer you to the statement of Mr. 
Buchanan, the witness by whom it was hoped or expected to be established, 
and to the conclusive refutation by Mr. Clay himself, in his manly appeal to 
the community. Those who yet believe it, must continue to believe it. Con-» 
elusions formed without evidence and against evidence, cannot be shaken by 
argument. Those who have not been reasoned up, can never be reasoned 
down. 

Of the ability of Mr. Adams to discharge the high functions of his office — 
of his familiar acquaintance with its duties — of his patient and devoted atten- 
tion to its labors — and of the general prosperity of the country under his Ad- 
ministration, there can be but little question. Why, then, are we to discard 
him, and to confide, to untried hands, the momentous interests of the Nation, 
which we know to be safe under his guardianship ? Is experience, the best 
of all teachers, of no avail in political science ? Is the practical wisdom, ac- 
quired by four years' administration of the Executive Office, to be thrown 
away without a cause ? Do we hazard nothing from the instability which must 
be imparted to national measures, by the total change of the men who admin- 
ister them ? Can any consistent and steady line of policy be pursued, if, from 
a change of councils, plans are broken up, before they can be matured ; or 
their execution entrusted to those who had no agency in forming them, and 
cannot be presumed to understand their scope and tendency ? The friends 
of General Jackson are eloquent in praise"6f the patriotism which he display- 
ed in the defence of his Country ; of his energy in controlling and directing 
the irregular valor of militia ; of the severity with which he chastised the 
cruelty and overawed the ferocity of the Indians ; and of the military genius 
and heroism which enabled him to achieve the memorable victoiy of Orleans, 
over a disciplined and powerful foe. Animated by the recollection of these 
exploits, they call on you to bestow on him, as a reward, the office of Presi- 
dent of the United States. If, fellow-citizens, this office were merely a re- 
ward, and not a trusty then, indeed, the inquiry might be, who has the strong- 
est claims to the premium I If the services of General Jackson have not been 
sufficiently acknowledged; if the Government or the People have been as 
yet niggard in their gratitude ; far be from us that illiberal policy which 
would refuse to services the meed which they deserve. But we disclaim this 
amputation of gratitude and parsimony of praise, as unjust. We mean not to 
undervalue the services of General Jackson, though we would claim some 
portion of praise for his equally patriotic and gallant associates in peril and 
glory. But whatever may be the estimate to be placed on those services, his 
countrymen have not been backward to acknowledge or reward them. The 
thanks of the constituted authorities of the land — the festive triumph — the 
sacred thanksgiving — the plaudits of the People — all for which brave men 
wish to live, or dare to die, have been yielded to him with a profusion that 
knew no stint. And shall we be deemed ungrateful, because we do not 
press upon him an awful and highly responsible trust — for which we 
have no reason to believe him qualified — in which he will probably lose 
the glory he has acquired, and may injure that country which it is his praise to 
have defended ? What would be thought of the prudence of the individual, 



who, in the effervescence of gratitude, should reward his Physician by confin- 
ing- to him the management of an important suit at the bar ; or should select 
his successful Advocate to navigate a ship over the stormy Ocean. 

We have a right to inquire, and, in the soberness of truth, we ask, is Gen. 
Jackson qualified to discharge the duties of the Presidential office } If he 
be not, we are. unjust to him, and siill more unfaithful to ourselves and our 
country, if we bestow it upon him. When we make this inquiry, we are 
reminded of our Washington. He was not less illustrious as a statesman, 
than eminent as a warrior ; and we are asked, why may not General Jack- 
son be a second Washington ? Is this an answer to the inquiry ? Prodigies 
are rare, or they would cease to be prodigies. Ages may roll away, before our 
country is again blessed, or any country shall be blessed, with another Wash- 
ington. We ask, is General Jackson qualified for this office ? He was a Judge, 
in the early settlement of Tennessee, at a time when legal talents were ne- 
cessarily rare. As the legal profession advanced to excellence in that State, 
he resigned his office, from the honest conviction, that it could be better fill- 
ed. He has been in the Congress of the United States, and, we presume, 
endeavored, to the best of his ability, to discharge the duties of his station. 
Yet this situation he quitted, with a declaration, and no doubt, a sincere one, 
that he but kept abler men out of office ; and we have yet to learn tliat he 
left behind him any reputation for political ability. When an opportunity was 
afforded of acquiring military distinction, the proofs of his capacity for war 
were instantly developed. Of his military talents, no one doubts ; of his 
talents as a statesman, no one is confident ; yet he has been in situations which 
afforded equal opportunities for displaying both. The inference is too ovious 
to escape the grasp of any understanding. 

But, if this inference, seemingly irresistible, should be contradicted by 
proofs, hereafter to be adduced, and General Jackson should evince, in any 
civil or political station, those capacities which have not yet been developed, 
it will be then time enough to invite him to the highest of civil and political 
employments. Let the country have practical assurance that he possesses the 
information, the temper, and the wisdom, which are required for this great 
office — and four years may afford the occasion to give us such assurance — and, 
without violence to our usages, distraction in our councils, or dissensions 
among our people, he may receive, what is now claimed as a reward, but will 
then cheerfully be bestowed as a trust, which he can ably and faithfully exe- 
cute. Is the delay intolerable to himself, or to his impatient friends ? Will 
they refuse to submit their favorite candidate — will he refuse to submit him- 
self to this practical test ? This very eagerness and impatience, but increase 
our distrust. 

His friends proclaim, that it is scarcely possible for him to have conducted 
his military operations with the skill which characterized them, and to want 
vigor of intellect and knowledge of the human character. Yet instances are 
not wanting of transcendartt military talents, united with political incompeten- 
cy; The General of wham Britain boasts as the conquererot Napoleon, is 
an acknowledged instance of the truth of the maxim, that nature seldom be- 
stows her gifts on any individual with such prodigality, as to fit him for attain- 
ing a high degree of excellence in more than one department of human ac- 
tion. But be it so. We da not know, and, therefore, do not say, that Gene- 
ral Jackson is deficient in intellect, and is not a keen observer of the ways of 
men. Is he qualified, therefore, for President ? Is he profoundly acquainted 
with the Constitution and laws of his country ? He certainly gave an unfor- 
tunate specimen of this knowledge, when he would apply the second article 
of the rules of war, which sul jects to military execution foreigners detected 
as spies in a camp, to citizens, whom he supposed to meditate treasonable 
views, assembled in their own country, where neither camp nor soldier was at 
hand. But this error may have proceeded, and no doubt did proceed, from 
an honest prejudice, and an uncontrollable impetuosity of temper. What 
other errors, when exalted to a higher station, may he not commit, perhaps even 
more fatal, from the operation of the same causes ? Hus he any fixed 
principles of national policy ? If he has, who knows them } In Pennsylva- 
nia, he is supported as devoted to the tariff and internal improvements, in the 
utmost extent to which the partizans of either would carry their plans of sup- 



»osed perfection. In the South, he is understood to be determined to sup* 
port these plans no further than they have already been advanced. The pro- 
bability is, that, on these and many other cardinal points of national policy, he 
has yet to form decided opinions. Political science has never been his study. 
Is he acquainted with the various interests which our country has to sustain 
and defend in her intercourse with foreign nations, or does he understand 
the complicated and delicate relations which subsist between the General 
and State Governments ? His admirers seem to think that nothing more than 
ordinary good sense are required for discharging, with ability, the most ar- 
duous, important, and responsible political employment to which man can be 
called. They seem to believe in heaven-taught statesmen, while they would 
laugh to scorn him who would speak of heaven-taught Judges, mathemati- 
cians, physicians, navigators, or mechanics. 

But we have heard it alleged, that he will have an able Cabinet. Fellow- 
eitizens, we consider this argument, if such it may be termed, as among the 
extraordinary delusions of the day. In monarchies, where the Prince is but 
the pageant of State, and the Government is in the hands of the Ministry, it is 
of little consequence whether the Sovereign be wise or ignorant. But, in our 
country, where the sovereignty is in the People or the States, the President 
is emphatically the Minister. His personal ability to manage the affairs of the 
Government is indispensable, God forbid that such a state of things should 
ever arise, when the President must either abandon the helm to subordinate pi- 
lots, or interfere with their management at the hazard of running the ship of 
State on rocks and breakers. But ot whom is this able Cabinet lo be composed ? 
All now in office, are to be turned out, and their places to be supplied by those 
we know not of. From what class of his supporters they are to be selected — 
whether from the admirers of splendid and magnificent national establish- 
ments, or from the schools of calculators and economists — the rigid definers of 
Federal authority, or the ultra liberals in the claim of power — the advocates 
for ample encouragement to domestic industry, or the sturdy opposers to 
every plan which may foster them — tariff or anti-tariff men — improvement or 
anti-improvement men, — the community is utterly ignorant. Perhaps, that he 
may not disappoint the reasonable claims of any portion of the heterogenous 
Combination tftat upholds him, materials of all kinds will be brought together 
into this Cabinet. In what proportion they will be mixed, or what will be the 
character of the composition, it is impossible to conjecture. The members of 
the Cabinet may be individually able, but with opposed principles and conflict*, 
ing views, and without a presiding judgment to blend the. discordant elements 
into a salutary union, the Cabinet itself will be either distracted by dissen- 
sions, or neutralized into inertness. 

We should be unfaithful to our duty, if we did not advert to some of the 
peculiar traits in General Jackson's character, which fill us with serious ap- 
prehensions. All know, his friends boast of his energy, his decision, his 
high spirit, his tenacity of reputation, his promptitude tor action — 

— — — " Jealous iu honor, sudden and quick in quarrel." 

These qualities, in excess, may be pernicious even in the soldier ; but in a 
Civil magistrate, unless directed by wisdom, controlled by moral and religious 
principles, tempered by moderation, united with sound constitutional know- 
ledge, and enlarged views of policy, they are fraught with danger— they may 
produce mischiefs of the most appalling kind. Where command is unlimit- 
ed, and obedience perfect, the General may press forward to the attainment of 
his purpose, disdainful ()i obstacles. But place him in the Chair of State, 
where he finds himself fenced around by the constitutional barriers erected 
for the preservation of civil freedom, and his impetuous temper must chafe 
and fret within the circle of restraint. At length, impatient of confinement, 
he will be tempted to burst its bounds, and trampling on constitutional restric- 
tions, relying on his popularity, he will enact the accustomed part of the 
soldier, seeking the end, regardless of the means, and reckless of the conse- 
quences. 

General Jackson is emphatically a soldier. His reputation is purely military ; 
all his laurels have been gathered in the battle-field. It is not in human nature 
for him not to feel a strong attachment to the pursuits which are identified 
with his glory. He cannot hope to add to his reputation by a character for 
political wisdom ; and yet he must desire to distinguish his Administration by 



8 

some brilliant achievements to be recorded in the rolls of fame. Our People, 
like the venerable and virtuous Madison, do not Iook on carnage with com- 
placency. What they would regard as among the greatest of our national 
calamities, war, would be to him, a summons to a glorious game, an invitation 
to pluck from peril fresh renown ; a high and animating excitement. He is the 
Army candidate. The military, almost without an exception, are enlisted in 
his cause. Make him President, and will not the pursuits of civil life be scorn- 
ed by the ardent, the aspiring, and the bold ? Will not military merit be the 
ordinary road to preferment ? Will not the pacific policy of our country be 
first discredited, then abandoned ? Will not conquest, glory, and pre-emi- 
nence in arms, be the delusions of the day, and shall we not ultimately become 
a military republic ? The steps between that character and a military des- 
potism may be few or more ; but to this end, unless we believe all history, 
we must come at last. The very prospect of his elevation to this distinction, 
seems, to us, to have already produced an unfortunate change in the tone of 
public sentiment and morals. The pacific virtues, so intimately associated 
with the charities of life, and the best interests of social man, reverence for 
law, restraint of passion, respect forage and station, decency towards adversa- 
ries, are thrown by as impediments which retard the career of conquest. Vio- 
lence, intimidation, boasts of resistless strength, common military artifices, are 
used to dispirit and terrify resistance. "In martial equipage they issue forth," 
and little else seems wanted, but the waving banner and the warlike music, to 
make this march to power military in all its aspects. Should it terminate in 
victory, may it be but a victory over political foes, and not over the Constitu- 
tion, the peace, the morals, the liberties of the country ! 

Fellow-citizens : we claim not to be prophets, and if General Jackson should 
be elected, we trust in a gracious Providence, that these evils will not be 
realized. But we speak to you in sober seriousness, of the things which we do 
believe, the evils which we do fear. Judge ye, if we believe or fear without 
a cause. To those who, ardent and unthinking, mock at our apprehensions, 
as the visions of a disturbed fancy, we would take the liberty to suggest, that 
it is better " to be despised for unnecessary fears, than ruined by too confident 
a security." 

Consider well, we entreat you, before you decide ; reflect calmly before 
you act. All which good men revere, and patriots hold precious, depend up- 
on your determination ; while every cause is in operation that is likely to lead 
you into error. An imprudent gratitude — admiration of military glory — sus- 
picions, too easily excited, and not thoroughly abandoned, even when their 
cause is removed — prejudices almost too powerful for reason — the misconcep- 
tions of the hasty, and the misrepresentations of the artful — the resentment of 
the disappointed, the clamors of the violent, and the vehement zeal of the 
seekers for popularity ; — all concur, not only to render deliberation difficult, but 
to give a false bias to the judgment. Prove that you are worthy of self-gov- 
ernment, and disappoint not the hopes of those who deem that reliance may 
be placed on the virtue and good sense of the People. Choose without pas- 
sion, and with an eye solely to your country's good. On the one side, there is 
certainly safety, probably prosperity. On the other, rest clouds and darkness. 
It is the way of peril, and it may lead to the destruction of the best hopes of 
man on earth. We have honestly discharged what we firmly believe to be 
our duty. We owed it to the reverence and affection which we cherished for 
those free institutions that were purchased by the blood of our fathers, and 
which we hope to transmit, unimpaired, as a precious inheritance to our chil- 
dren. If we be wrong, excuse an error which springs from a motive that you 
must approve. If we are right, act with us. And may He, in whose hands 
are the hearts and understandings of men, 4 ' who bringeth counsel to naught, 
and maketh devises of none effect," enlighten, guide, and direct you. 

Signed in behalf of the Convention of the friends of the Administration in 
North Carolina, this 30th January, 1828, by 

WM. GASTON, 
WM. DAVIDSON, 
EDMUND JONES, 
THOS. P. DEVEREUX, 
JOHN L. BAILEY. 
Committee for thut purpose appointed 



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